[ALBSA-Info] {QIKSH «ALBEUROPA»} NEWS: Humiliation of Kosovo Albanians queuing for Yugoslav passports (AFP, 17 Dec 2000)

[Wolfgang Plarre]

http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/001217/world/afp/Humiliation_of_Kosovo_Albanians_queuing_for_Yugoslav_passports.html

Sunday, December 17 11:47 AM SGT 

Humiliation of Kosovo Albanians queuing for Yugoslav passports

PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Dec 17 (AFP) - 

In a quiet Pristina backstreet around 60 Kosovo Albanians jostle each
other in front of the the Yugoslav government's office in the province,
keen to get their humiliation over with.
    "I'm ashamed to have come here," whispers one, "The Serbs killed so
many of us, but now I have to beg them for a passport".
    Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority believes it deserves independence
from Federal Yugoslavia and its dominant republic, Serbia, and refuses
to accept the implications of the UN Security Council resolution which
gives the breakaway province only "substantial autonomy."
    But if they want to travel Kosovo Albanians must swallow their pride
and ask for a Yugoslav passport.
    "I refused for a year and a half to come to the Yugoslav office, but
now I have no choice. It's a difficult step for me, because I don't
consider Yugoslavia as my country," said a man in the crowd, one of a
few that agreed to speak.
    Signs of the hate that still marks relations between the Albanians
and the Yugoslav authorities are all around as he speaks. The office is
guarded by a huge iron gate and eight British marine commandos. In the
courtyard is the wrecked remains of a car that had been parked last
month next to the home of the head of the office when it was the target
of a bomb attack.
    The Albanians, who all asked not to be named in case their hard
decision angered their nationalist neighbours, have varying reasons for
seeking a passport.
    "Since June last year I've been paying a German to send me ceramic
tiles, but he's too expensive. I have to go myself," says a shopkeeper,
who said his last passport was seized by Serb troops during the war.
    Another young man leaves the office with a smile on his face and a
passport in his pocket.
    "Now I can go and join my wife in Croatia, get myself naturalised
there and get rid of this awful document. It's the beginning of a new
life," he declares.
    The passport office is in the windowless basement of the building,
where there is no electricity and the three Serb staff have to work with
the door open to let in light.
    Since June 1999, when with the arrival of a NATO-led peacekeeping
force Kosovo became a international protectorate, the Pristina office
has been the only place to legally obtain travel documents.
    Since then it has issued 51,500 passports, 95 percent of them to
Albanians, according to the chief of the office, who also asked not to
be named. Passports are valid for ten years, cost 50 German marks (23
dollars) and are issued around a month after they are applied for.
    There is a quicker way, but it's much more expensive. 
    Mimosa, a 22-year-old woman with a thirst to travel, paid 800 marks,
a month's salary, to an Albanian go-between who "collaborates with the
Serbs" and received her passport in less than a week.
    "It's the price of avoiding the humiliation of going to their
office," she said.
    "I've been stuck in Kosovo for a year and a half. I could never have
imagined wanting a new Yugoslav passport, but the United Nations didn't
keep its promises, so I had no choice," she explained.
    Kosovo's UN mission will begin issuing identity papers and travel
documents to "Kosovo residents" by the end of the year. Whether there
will ever be a true Kosovo passport is still far from certain.

Copyright © 2000 AFP


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